i guess im back.

disclaimer: all belongs to RR.

Chapter 7

Good Girls Say "I Love You"

Jason

After a series of early morning marathons and gruelling physical exertion the Wilderness School seemed to love torturing us with, I felt my body slowly shaping up. Running didn't seemed too hard anymore and my breathing had started to pace itself, leaving me not as breathless and tired as I used to be.

School always went on, like life did, slugging on it's heavy feet and dragging us forcefully like a chain behind a truck. Much to the surprise of the student body, nothing much happened. It was shockingly mundane, which wasn't what I was expecting from a school filled with delinquents. I didn't exactly know what I was expecting but it was more along the lines of knives fight, girls getting pregnant left and right and me being the awkward and scrawny sixteen year old I was, getting pummelled to death almost instantly. But the Wilderness was more or less a normal school. It was still hot as fuck in Armpit, Nevada, and I still took cold showers to stop myself from spontaneously combusting. We still journeyed over to the small cheap-ass pit-stop town for beers with Annabeth, Percy and the gang. We still whined and bitched about being stuck in the middle of nowhere. Basically, if you were to leave and come back, nothing would change.

On the bright side (or not so bright side, depending on preferences), my lessons had finally began- the only prospect I looked forward to in this burning fiery pit of a hellhole. My most anticipated lesson was English.

"How the hell did you get into AP English?" grumbled Leo as he snatched my schedule from my fingers without any warning but I was slowly getting used to that. It wasn't Leo being rude. It was Leo being Leo.

"Because," I said, lacking unoriginal content because I was deprived of my morning coffee due to Leo forgetting to switch on the alarm and both of us rushing down to breakfasts like madmen. I made a grab for my schedule but Leo ducked out of the way, "I'm smart."

My response was laughter but I rolled my eyes. "Whatever," Leo said, trying and failing to compose himself, "You're lucky you have Mr Brunner. Almost ten percent of the people that takes his class turn out not to be dumbass shitheads."

I gave the obligatory chuckle at 'dumbass shitheads'. "Right, whatever. Have fun in Spanish."

"Of course, I will," smirked Leo, splitting away me to the lower ground where his class was located. "It's the only class I can skip and still pass."

Leo hopped off to learn Spanish, or to quote 'sleep in Spanish' while I hugged my books to my chest as I travelled across the corridor to find the classroom written on my schedule. Eventually, I found it. It was a neat classroom, smelling of lemon bleach, with rows of desks and half-filled with students but apparently, according to Mr Brunner, it was the whole class.

"Ah," Mr Brunner clapped his hand together when he saw Jason by the doorway. "A newcomer."

"Hi," I said awkwardly (because when was I never awkward), shifting from foot to foot. I scanned the classroom and there was only one person I recognized, which was Rachel Dare. She was amongst the calibre of people, her red curly hair was a neon flare. She waved at me when she saw me.

"What's your name?" Mr Brunner spoke with a low baritone, reminding me of my father's Elvis Presley albums charging out of a vinyl player.

"Jason. Jason Grace."

"Well, 'Jason, Jason Grace', you can take the seat at the front. Excuse my upfront manner but I'm wary of newcomers. We're not a class of slackers so I won't have you dozing off or doodling. If I do find yourself occupied in anything other than the lesson, it's out of my class. Understood?"

I nodded soundlessly and hastily scooted over to an empty front seat. This Mr Brunner meant business. "Very well," Mr Brunner said, commencing the class with a clap. "Everybody, quiet down."

Surprisingly, the soft buzz of chatter sharpened into the palpable silence of nobody talking. Everybody sat in their seats, upright and alert, waiting for Mr Brunner's lecture. I looked around. Holy shit. I haven't seen any class so focused before in my lifetime. It was like Mr Brunner had the magic touch or something.

"This year we'll be focus primarily on coming-of-age novels, also known as Bildungsroman- the correct literary term I all expect you to refer to while writing essays. Bildungsroman focus on themes of the shattering loss of innocence, a protagonist's journey from child into adulthood, changing perceptions of the world the character is in as they grow- it's character development but in a story format. Some of the greatest examples have transcended into classics. For example: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a novel that every American should read at least once in their life"- Done, I thought, remembering the beautiful novel I digested when I had to squeeze in a thirteen over a trip from New York to London- "and a more recent one would be The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky." Brunner paused to scan the room, making sure he still held our attention- which he did- before resuming, "The one we'll be studying this term is a legendary classic, of which I'm sure you've heard of, one of the greatest novels that has never been turn into a movie so if you're planning on slacking off on reading the book and watching the movie to write your essay, there goes your escape hatch. It is"- Mr Brunner paused again for dramatic effect- "Catcher In The Rye."

"Oh!" I heard somebody gasped in the back, somebody primarily female. "That's such a good book."

"Yes, Lou Ellen," Mr Brunner's piercing brown eyes focused on the girl who spoke. I turned and saw the brunette blushing when Mr Brunner called her out, "It is a good book. You're lucky I agree with you. If not, you'll find yourself in detention for speaking out of turn. One more time and you won't be so lucky."

"Yes, Mr Brunner," Lou Ellen replied meekly.

"Wonderful," a fleeting smile twisted Mr Brunner's hardened, stoic features. "Now before we start on the novel, I would like to get a grasp on the students of our class. Especially since it's a new year. We'll do this by introducing ourselves and our favourite books. You can tell a lot about a person by their favourite book. Let's start with the front row. Miss Gardner?"

A girl with wispy brown hair stood up. "Um, I'm Katie Gardner and my favourite book is Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery."

"A nostalgic choice," commented Mr Brunner, "I assume it was something you read as a child?"

Katie nodded and sat back down. The class went on like this for a while. From my general observations, favourites tend to range from the classics from Jane Austen to all-time children memories like Harry Potter. When it suddenly got to me, Mr Brunner faced me with a pair of austere brown eyes and crossed arms, like I automatically got on his bad side already.

"Mr…"

"Grace," I lightly finished for him, not wanting to piss him off anymore. "Jason Grace. And my favourite book is...1984 by George Orwell."

Surprise stitched itself on Mr Brunner's expression. "Really?" he asked, circling me with a look that was less intimidating than the one before but still pretty freaking terrifying. I nodded obligatorily, hoping not to get struck by the invisible lightning bolt. "Interesting choice. Sit down, Jason."

The class was pretty standard stuff from then on. After the introductions, Mr Brunner went on to explain the usual recurring themes of a coming-of-age novel, a Bildungsroman, as he referred it to but I said 'coming-of-age' novel because it's less mispronunciation-prone, thus less embarrassing. He continued by explaining how coming-of-age novels were heavily centered based on a protagonist's character development, either through age or certain events. I found it all very fascinating and scribbled it onto my notebook, hanging by a thread to catch every word he said. The rest of the class did the same. But pretty soon, the bell rang, signalling the end of fourth period and the start of lunch, much to my disappointment.

"So how was that?" Rachel Dare asked as we exited out of the class. "You just got your first taste of Mr Brunner."

"That was...intense," I exhaled, "He's...not what I was expecting."

"I know right?" Rachel Dare's green eyes brightened, "He's a fucking genius. A bit strict but hell…"

I nodded along distractedly because as the students buzzed, talking and walking as they made their way to the lockers. Despite being hardened criminals and known troublemakers, the Wilderness School was okay- almost like a normal high school. It was more normal than the stupid private schools where everybody had LSD pills and Mary Jane hidden in their Gucci and Prada or the teachers were super strict Catholic devouts who believed shorts above the knees was a damnation straight to hell.

In the midst of the class exchange, I spotted Piper lounging by her lockers, surrounded by a fervent knot of girls all trying to put out for her attention but she barely registered them. She just continued to take out her books from her locker, with one earphone hanging from her pierced earlobes. She turned and closed her locker and at that moment, our gazes met. Then she averted her eyes away from mine, noticeably avoiding me as she struck a conversation with Lacy.

My breath hitched. There was so many things I wanted to say. So many goddamn things. But I don't know where to begin.

"...and Mr Brunner was like, bitch get out of my...Jason?" Rachel prompted.

"Yeah?" I absentmindedly mumbled.

"You're going to walk into a wall."

My attention span snapped back to Earth and I saw a looming white wall with signboards advertising all the extracurriculars. "Oh right," I sheepishly stepped out of the way. "I was just-"

"Gawking at Piper?" Rachel raised her bushy red eyebrows.

"Um…"

"Look, it happens- okay?" laughed Rachel, "It happened with Leo too. She's like that; she makes you think you have it with her but you really don't."

"What do you mean?"

"She's like that," explained Rachel, repeating herself. "She'll be all over you one minute and the next you're history."

I swallowed, hoping it all isn't true. "But maybe I'm-"

"Different?" laughed Rachel sarcastically, "That's what they all think before she eats them alive."

"Yo, heads up."

I felt something hit me in the back of the head. It landed with a very solid thump onto the floor and it wasn't heavy and it didn't hurt, but it distracted me from memorizing the properties of the Watson and Crick's double helix DNA model as Leo strode in. I turned around in my chair and saw a stash of ground-up leaves on the floor and picked it up.

"What is this?"

"Weed," Leo casually responded, "So don't go shouting it out loud, eh?"

I suddenly regarded the bag like it was some sort of ticking time bomb. "Um…"

"Relax," Leo said with that trouble-making smile of his, "We'll never get caught- we're not that stupid." Leo snatched the bag of from me and locked the door so nobody could come in. Then he jumped onto the bed and rolled out some hash, spreading it onto a white paper and proceeded to roll it properly into a joint. There was a flicker of a flame from Leo's green bic lighter and smoke began to emit from the tip.

I watched the door, waiting for the teachers to burst in and bust us. I tried to think about a various bunch of ideas to weasel out of trouble but nothing happened, thankfully. I nervously scratched my head and Leo laughed, puffs of smoke rolling off his mouth as his lips parted.

"You're such a noob," remarked Leo, "The teachers won't catch us. Here, take a hit."

"I- uh-" I was staring at the lit joint as the ignited sparks seemed to bore it's gaze into me. I've never really done anything particularly rebellious, mostly because smoking weed and underage drinking never appealed to me. For one, it's stupid. You're fucking up your future for one good hit of pleasure and that never made sense to me. Two, could you be more cliche? Really? A teenager, smoking and drinking? I refused to fall in my own stereotype- but it was then I figured, why not? What could I possibly lose? My hand curled around the smoking joint and I placed it on my lips, tasting the woody smell rise up my throat.

It caused my eyes to explode in front of us, like explosions you see on tv, and my head reeled, the lights going off in my head. "Whoa," the drugs elicited me to say. "Holy fuck."

Leo laughed, "Dude, don't hog the whole thing. Pass it over."

So basically I abandoned DNA and genetics to smoke weed. Was I disappointing my mother now? Leo and I began talking about random crap, like the new Star Wars movie, how shitty the morning runs were and before I knew it, we were talking about Piper.

"Rachel told me you dated her."

Fucking hell, Jason. Really?

Leo chuckled, slightly buzzed from that thousand-miles look he had in his eyes. "Yeah, I did," he said wistfully, like he was thinking of better memories. "But that ended, of course. I mean it's Piper Mclean."

"What's the deal with her? I mean, why am I so-"

"Obsessed with her?" voiced Leo. "It's just her, y'know. She does that, makes her all obsessed with her and then kill you after that. You have to just wash her out of your head."

I placed the joint in between my lips and inhaled the smoke deep into my lungs, then exhaled with a sign. The cloud of smoke ghosted in front of my face. "Sounds like you're speaking from experience."

Leo twiddled the joint in his fingers. "Yeah, I dated her for a while."

"Really?" I watched his face for any emotion. Pain crossed his face, tightening it.

"Yeah. It was...I don't know." Leo blew out a halo into the our dorm. Now everything in our room seemed as the world was cloak in a veil of white blue. Leo was staring blankly into the ceiling when he decided to speak again, back on the bed, lying down straight and tall: "It was good, I guess. She's crazy and weird. I mean, whenever we fuck, we were high on E and morphine and half of the time, we were buzzed and when I told her I loved her, she ignored me for a whole week until she decided to break up."

"Jesus."

Leo sat upright again and stared at me. "Look, I know you like Piper and I get it: she's pretty, popular, she sells pretty good drugs but...she's not worth it, not at all. Don't get yourself in when you know she's just going to burn you."

Everybody was telling me to get out before I was in too deep.

And I wanted to but I don't think I had much of a choice at this point.

dude don't you think the song 'gasoline' by halsey fits Piper?

holy shit IT DOES.

OMG. YES.

DUDE.

ahem, please review. anyway, there's gonna be a SHIT TON OF DRUGS IN THIS STORY.

should it be rated m or t?

oh well.